


take a breath

by BeStillMySlashyHeart



Category: The Old Guard (Comics), The Old Guard (Movie 2020)
Genre: M/M, Post-Canon, Post-Movie
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-12
Updated: 2020-07-12
Packaged: 2021-03-04 20:48:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,026
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25212685
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BeStillMySlashyHeart/pseuds/BeStillMySlashyHeart
Summary: Once they are safe, Nicky and Joe take a moment together.
Relationships: Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani/Nicky | Nicolò di Genova
Comments: 41
Kudos: 1741
Collections: The Old Guard





	take a breath

It took them less than an hour to find their old safe house in London. It was Joe and Nicky’s more than it was the groups but they had no trouble opening their doors and ushering them all inside. 

Joe and Nile got Andy situated on the couch, careful of her injury. “We don’t have any first aid supplies,” Joe confesses ruefully. 

“I will get some,” Booker offered from where he hovered just inside the doorway. Joe stood, his earlier anger returning. Booker didn’t move as he advanced on him.

A warm hand pressed into the center of his chest stopped him. It did not stop his glare, however. “Thank you,” Nicky said to Booker. “And could you get some food? There is very little here.”

Booker nodded and left. In his wake, Joe felt some of his anger leave him but the tension remained, as did Nicky’s hand. 

“Nile,” Andy stifled a groan as she shifted on the couch. “Can you help me clean this up? Make sure it’s nothing too serious?” 

Nile nodded and moved quickly around the kitchen, the cabinets banging open and shut as she gathered a bowl to fill in the sink and a clean rag. 

“I’m fine,” Andy said to them. “Nile will keep me company until Booker gets back.”

Just the name made him clench his fist. Nicky rubbed his chest gently where his hand still rested. “We’ll be right back,” he promised.

Andy grinned. “Take your time.”

They nodded to Nile as Nicky pulled Joe deeper into the apartment. They didn’t stop in the bedroom, barely noticing it as they ventured into the attached bathroom. Joe started stripping as Nicky turned on the shower. It wasn’t the largest bathroom they’d used, that was a luxury reserved for their apartment in Istanbul, but it would do for now. 

Joe dropped his ripped and bloody clothes into a pile by the door before he helped Nicky out of his. The back of his head was matted with blood and brains and skull fragments and suddenly Joe needed to get him into the shower. Nicky had hardly kicked his pants free before Joe was ushering him in.

“Joe,” Nicky admonished gently even as he allowed himself to be maneuvered. Joe didn’t reply, too preoccupied with getting Nicky’s head under the water and coaxing his hair free from the carnage. 

Neither one of them paid much attention to the way the water ran red around them, too used to it to care.

Nicky submitted to Joe’s ministrations wordlessly, tilting his head into the water. It was only when Joe started running his hands down the length of his body that Nicky moved. He pushed Joe until his back hit the tiled wall and took his hands in his.

“I’m fine,” Nicky promised.

“I know,” Joe replied, because he did. They were always fine. “I know,” he repeated. 

Nicky sighed and pressed their foreheads together, their joined hands trapped between them. “It’s not our time yet.”

“I know,” Joe promised. “You- it was normal,” he admitted. “It didn’t take longer than the last time it had happened, so I don’t understand it, but I saw you lying there, your head-” Joe shook his head. “I think my heart stopped, I could barely _breathe_ , I just-”

Nicky released his hands to cup the back of his head and press Joe’s face into his neck. “I’m okay.”

Joe clutched at his back. “I need you to stay that way.”

“I will,” Nicky promised. “I will not leave you.”

“You can’t promise me that.”

“Yes, I can.” He pressed a kiss to Joe’s wet hair. “We came into this together and we will leave it together.” A little bit of the tension eased out of Joe. The words were familiar, repeated between them for centuries now. 

Still, some of his desperation remained. He looked up into Nicky’s eyes. “You will never leave my side? Outside of death, I mean.”

Nicky shook his head. “I will never leave you. And I will never betray you.” Joe’s eyes slid closed. “We will deal with Booker, I promise. But you know, eventually, you will have to forgive him. You cannot be angry forever.”

“He let them capture you, turn you into a lab rat. They would have locked us up forever, to die over and over again.”

“Yes,” Nicky agreed. “But we are free of that now. We are safe. I am safe, Yusuf.”

Joe kissed him. It was desperate, an urgent need to know and feel that Nicky was alive and here with him. Nicky responded in kind, Joe not alone in his need. 

The water ran cold around them but they paid it no mind. Hot showers were still a relative luxury to them so they hardly noticed when it disappeared. There were more important things to pay attention to, after all.

By the time they finally reemerged, Booker had returned with what had to be too many medical supplies and was definitely too much food. Joe noted bags from four different restaurants, all of which were coincidentally his and Nicky’s favorites. He’s positive Andy’s favorite would be among them if she didn’t hate everything made in this country.

Joe took the food. It _was_ his favorite and it had nothing to deserve his hatred, no matter that the person who’d brought it to him had. He over-filled his plate, glaring at Booker all the while. Booker had the good grace to not shrink from his gaze. 

“Salam,” Nicky murmured when he sat next to him. _Peace_. Nicky’s thigh pressed warmly against Joe’s own and he grounded himself in the sensation. It was true, what Booker had said in the lab; he and Nicky had never had to be alone, not like Booker and Andy had. It was a blessing he could never apologize for but it meant that he could not imagine the loneliness that must weigh on the other man. It did not excuse his betrayal or the way he had put Nicky in danger but-

“For now,” he agreed. “But I will need time.”

“I will give it,” Nicky promised. “You will have it.”


End file.
